Public engagement for researchers: Schools

Schools offer a unique setting for engaging with science. Your audience is already in the building, for one thing. But you still have to get their attention. You also need to offer something which fits teachers’ as well as students’ ideas about what is worthwhile, and – most often – which directly enhances the curriculum. One unbeatable way to do that is by involving pupils in genuine scientific research. For example, a few years ago, pupils as young as eight from Blackawton Primary School in Devon investigated the vision of bumble bees, publishing a paper to document their findings.

At Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury, pupils have been visiting university physics labs and getting involved with experiments for some years. More recently, pupils had the opportunity to get in involved with practical biology when Biology teacher Dr Dave Colthurst decided to bring real biomedical research to the school. The first biology project at Langton, researching a protein involved in multiple sclerosis, started in 2008, and has now inspired research in four other schools across the country, all part of the Wellcome Trust-supported Authentic Biology Project, which began in 2011. We asked Dave how the project developed.

How hard is it to get set up to do real research in school?

It isn’t something they can do in their lunch hour. You need full days allocated, and funding for the equipment. But biology is essentially portable. We had advice from university researchers, and we used the same kits they order themselves for things like Western blotting and DNA analysis, gene cloning and protein purification. And the funding for the broader project now covers a half day a week commitment from a teacher and a technician.

What kind of support did the school need?

For our project we worked with the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent, and the professors there came up with things our kids could do. They also encouraged their postgraduate students and postdocs to get involved, who were very committed and enthusiastic. The University doesn’t actually work on the protein we wanted to work on (myelin basic protein, MBP), but treated this as a standalone project.

And how does it actually work in the school?

We need three ‘collapsed’ days off timetable for cross-curricular work, and it can’t just be the science department’s project – there has to be a senior management team backing them. But most staff in my school have now been doing this for years, and have learnt the techniques we are using. A few days in advance I tell them what the students are going to be doing. Year 13 students and university students act, essentially, as demonstrators. The university says this is very “light touch” public engagement.

In between the full days, in our school at least, I now have two days per week funding from Wellcome. I am essentially a “researcher in residence” for these two days and the students use their non-contact periods (they still call them “frees”!) to come into the lab and take part in whatever experiments are running at the time.

How easily has the idea translated to other schools?

The four other universities (Bristol, Sheffield, Southampton and Queen Mary, University of London) had schools they were already working with, and have offered good guidance. It is important to get the right dynamic between the academics and the teachers – this is why we let the unis choose the schools, rather than have me try and establish a link with a school the uni does not really know.

And each school has found its own new project. How did that work?

The London school was a great example of this. They immediately thought of diabetes because it is a problem in the local Bangladeshi community. The kids have family members who have it. It means extra care in terms of consent and confidentiality, but the local relevance is powerful. Sheffield went with heart disease genes because the university is working on relevant genes identified from study of local population data. The others have devised projects related to university research strengths. The point is to involve schools in tackling real research questions.

Students at Simon Langton School working on the MBP2 project

What’s your impression of the effect on the scientists and students involved in these projects?

Both the students and scientists seem to gain a huge amount from working closely together, developing new skills and understanding. The scientists have been very positive about working with the students, they are always impressed by how knowledgeable and confident they are. And they enjoy passing on their practical skills and teaching the students the theoretical background to the techniques. Those who have flirted with teaching have used it as a way of testing the water: we have had several people come into the school and spend one or two days watching lessons and getting a real feel for teaching – they get caught up in the buzz of passing on their knowledge and understanding, and they have the obvious ability to make it relevant to their own research and other work they know about also happening at the university. Other universities have commented on how it helps their post-grad students with presentation skills, time management and demonstration skills – all seemingly very useful for them.

If you would like to work with a school but are unsure of how to start, there are lots of places to find help and support. Your university will have a public engagement or outreach team who may know about opportunities with primary and secondary schools in your area. This team can also offer ideas for activities and tips about how to work with your local schools.

The Trust is committed to supporting a wide variety of public engagement work. If this post has inspired you to get more involved, there are a number of funding opportunities available to support different types of public engagement projects. It is possible to apply for ring-fenced funds to run a programme of activities alongside a research project, visit our website for more information.

Alternatively, if you have an idea for a single public engagement project, visit our funding pages to explore the different funding schemes we offer.

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Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health by supporting bright minds in science, the humanities and social sciences, and public engagement. Read more.

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